A smart phone app created in Cleveland suggests paint colors based on consumers' favorite songs.The New York Timeswrites that users of Paintlist, a new app by Dutch Boy for iPhone or Android, “can either use their devices' microphones to identify a song they hear, as with the popular app Shazam, or select songs stored on their smart phones.”As a rendering of the Dutch Boy character stirs a can of paint, “the app analyzes the song, and based on characteristics like tempo, suggests several color palettes,” according to the story. The Times notes that after identifying the song “Towers” by Bon Iver, for example, the app suggested a slate-blue shade called Baltic Sea for walls and, for trim, Pale Blue Spring and black.The newspaper reports that the app and an online advertising campaign promoting it come from Marcus Thomas, representing the agency's first work for Dutch Boy, a Sherwin-Williams Co. brand. (Marcus Thomas in February won the work for the digital aspects of Sherwin-Williams' Dutch Boy, Krylon, Purdy and Pratt & Lambert brands.)Patricia Macko, director of brand marketing at Dutch Boy, tells The Times that the app aims to reach millennials from their late teens through early 30s.“We know millennials are who we need to be talking to, because they are the future homeowners in the category,” Ms. Macko says. “The brand is steeped in heritage, but for millennials it might just be something they remember seeing in their grandmother's garage.”King Hill, senior vice president at Marcus Thomas, adds that when the agency was trying to win the Dutch Boy account about a year ago, his team knew from the outset that the way to help the brand make its appeal to younger consumers “was to somehow link paint to music,” according to the story.“Music is a big vehicle for them to express themselves,” Mr. Hill says. “We in some ways want to piggyback on what already is a popular conversation for them.”The app incorporates a song-identification technology service that recognizes more than 10 million songs, The Times reports.

This and that

Who needs a car?: TheAtlanticCities.com highlights new data from the Institute for Quality Communities at the University of Oklahoma that looks at how Americans commute to work, and Cleveland, it turns out, has a reasonably large percentage of people who get to work by biking, walking or transit.

New York, of course, has the highest share of non-car commuters, at about 67%.Among Midwestern cities, Cleveland had the third-highest share of non-car commuters, at 16.5% — 10.3% public transit, 5.6% walking and 0.6% biking. Only Chicago (34.8%) and Minneapolis (23.5%) were higher than Cleveland in their share of non-car commuters.Minneapolis has 4.5% of its citizens bike to work. That's a very achievable goal for Cleveland.Compassionate conservative: “I'm concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor. That if you're poor, somehow you're shiftless and lazy.”That's today's Quotation of the Day in The New York Times. Can you guess who said it?Give yourself points if you answered Gov. John Kasich.A Timesprofile of Gov. Kasich says he's among Republican governors nationwide, including Chris Christie of New Jersey and even Scott Walker of Wisconsin, trying to distance themselves from the national party in Washington.“But few have gone further than Mr. Kasich in critiquing his party's views on poverty programs, and last week he circumvented his own Republican legislature and its Tea Party wing by using a little-known state board to expand Medicaid to 275,000 poor Ohioans under President Obama's health care law,” The Times writes.“He embodies conventional Republican fiscal priorities — balancing the budget by cutting aid to local governments and education — but he defies many conservatives in believing government should ensure a strong social safety net,” according to the story.

The Times notes Gov. Kasich “still angers many on the left; he signed a budget in June that cut revenues to local governments and mandates that women seeking an abortion listen to the fetal heartbeat.”Some Democrats “see his centrist swing as mere calculation, a prelude to a tough re-election fight,” according to the story.“This is someone who realized he had to get to the center and chose Medicaid as the issue,” said Danny Kanner, communications director of the Democratic Governors Association. “That doesn't erase the first three years of his governorship when he pursued polices that rewarded the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.”Going green: Cleveland is a standout in urban gardening, and policymakers deserve some credit.While urban gardening often begins organically, “without a supportive policy structure in place, it can be difficult for these programs to take root, thrive and be of maximum and equitable benefit to the whole community,” according to this piece from Robert Ogilvie, vice president for strategic engagement at ChangeLab Solutions.Such policy structures “might consist of changes to existing zoning code, or they could consist of partnership agreements that help spread the responsibility for a successful urban gardening program across complementary groups,” he writes.Mr. Ogilvie says Cleveland and San Jose, Calif., “are two examples of communities that have successfully built such policy structures.”Cleveland, he writes, “has turned an overwhelming number of vacant and foreclosed properties — nearly 20,000 in total, with 5,000 in the city of Cleveland Land Bank — into an opportunity. The Reimagining Cleveland Initiative, a partnership of Neighborhood Progress Inc. the city of Cleveland, Kent State University, Ohio State University Extension, and others are implementing a pilot land reuse demonstration initiative that is turning city-owned vacant sites into productive use — including such urban agriculture uses as community gardens, marker gardens, orchards, vineyards, pocket parks and neighborhood pathways.”To make this a reality, Mr. Ogilvie says, the city updated its zoning code in November 2010 “to permit urban agriculture in residential districts, which had been banned under the previous zoning code. Also, the Ohio Department of Agriculture came out with guidance on which home-grown and homemade products can and cannot be sold, and how products for sale need to be processed, packaged and labeled.”You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.

Crain's Afternoon Report

The Crain's editorial team produces this email news alert every afternoon. Sign up to receive links to the day's business news and editors' blog entries.